Ah, "The Road." That filthy black ribbon girding the land. Inspiration and abomination at once. Aside from teamsters and traveling salesmen, you'd be hard-pressed to find a subsection of society more intimate with its nuances than musicians.

Bands often define themselves in the cozy confines of a cargo van. Living as a single unit, hurtling from city to city in a motorized storage closet, scarfing down fast food, harboring dreams of world domination.

Road life affects bands in different ways. Countless acts come apart at the seams on the road. Others thrive in it. One such band is The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, guitarist Nate Albert, bassist Joe Gittleman, Tim Burton, Kevin Lenear and Dennis Brockenborough on horns, drummer Joe Sirois and back up vocalist Ben Carr).

The band has flogged the road for eight years. Constant touring has been punctuated only by brief periods of recording. The emphasis is on brief. The Bosstones adhere to the Mike Watt philosophy of recording which regards albums as nothing more than really expensive flyers for live gigs. "In the past we would write however many songs that we needed to fill an album and get back to non-stop touring," explains Bosstones guitarist Nate Albert. Their press bio sums up the Bosstones ethic best, "12 guys in a decrepit blue van with no A/C, building blood loyalty among growing legions of fans across the country."

Although the Bosstones have since traded in cargo vans for tour busses the attitude still remains. On tour throughout the summer, the band has traversed the country several times in support of their newest release, Let's Face It and as a featured act on the Warped Tour (line up included: Fishbone, Pennywise, NOFX, CIV, Fluf, Deftones, Red 5, Unwritten Law, Blink-182, Rocket From the Crypt, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 311). Warped was one of the largest tours of the summer and their experience seems to have been a positive one. "If we were to put together a festival tour, which we would never be allowed to do, it would be just like the Warped Tour," laughs bassist Joe Gittleman. "We only got to do four shows last year, so we're psyched to do the whole tour this year."

As the band gains momentum, they are faced with problems that have almost become a cliche in contemporary music. Some fans reject any sign of success, such as a major label deal or a festival tour, as a sign of weakness and quickly stamp such bands as sellouts. This problem is familiar to the Bosstones. "There's always someone who thinks that they were down first," says Gittleman. "Those kind of people are always going to be cooler than someone else."

"Yeah, like my Mom," quips Albert. "The fact is," he continues "is that we've been trying to sell out for years, but no one was buying. we're doing the same thing now, people are just buying the records."

The subject obviously strikes a nerve with the band. "When we started playing some clubs in Boston that were too big for some people you hear the same kind of thing," says Gittleman. "We're doing what we've always wanted to do. Those people who like to point fingers are basically being told what to do -- a lot of them. They're not doing what they dream about, you know. A lot of people are out there working for the dollar and I don't think that we're like that. I sleep well at night."

Dedication to this ideal seems to be bringing back dividends. "Something that I've noticed," states Albert. "Is that our fans have begun to follow us from show to show, never getting enough. Some start out in Providence, get as far as Chicago, or Minneapolis."

Insight into the touring phenomenon is rare and usually controlled by record labels and the media. JAMTV had the unique opportunity to rip a few pages out of the road journal of Mighty Mighty Bosstones guitarist and songwriter Nate Albert for an insider's look at the life of a consummate touring band. What follows are a few selections that were e-mailed us and put up largely uncut.

Mineappolis
7/17/97

Land of Replacements

It's sunny and Hot today. Thank god yesterdays shows were inside. We had a twister warning! Crazy amounts of rain and lightning. It made the bus drive kinda freaky. Anyway, today should be good. Everyone is sunburned and little beat. We are in the middle of a 19 show run without a day off. We can't complain though. Everyone on the tour has been super gracious. But I think that this might be the hottest tour we have ever been on except maybe Lollapalooza '95. That was the year that they had that crazyheat wave in the Midwest and so many people were dying from the heat that they had to store the bodies in meat refrigeration trucks. Yikes! We made it through that okay. Sinead left the tour though.
More soon...

Love,
Nate

Buffaaaloooooo

7/22/97

Rain, Rain, Rain...

It was coming down like nails in Chicago. Our Bus was out for the count.Broken alternator. We sat in our trailer. Mud fest. They canceled all of the other stages except ours. Descendants all switched up gear and did a rad mini set of punk rock covers. Thunder, lightening and mud. Pennywise (the band) lost their bus a few days later. I think its some kind of bus virus going around. We've had Fletcher (lead guitarist for Pennywise) and his Girl Corina on our bus for the past two nights. We all love Pennywise and Fletcher is a super funny and cool guy. His Girlfriend is a sweetheart to boot. Saw that movie Scream for the first time on the bus last night, Crazy. Oh yeah, it's raining again today.

Barbecue

We have been grilling almost every night on this tour. Lagwagon just joinedus and they sponsored last nights feast: Joey (Lagwagon's lead singer) whips up a fine steak. Descendants caught some salmon and have been adding that to the smoke pit as well. Good stuff.

Do The Rock Star

I would say that the Warped tour vibe is the antithesis of the Lollapalooza back stage vibe. Every one is super laid back and open to everyone else. Lolla had a bit too much of that old rock star thing floating around. I can't stand that stuff anymore. I don't know if we ever could but so many bands seemed to be total dicks that I thought that was the norm for a while there. I would hate to live like that that's for sure. There are these bandsthat watch themselves on MTV and start to believe that that is who and what they are. Believing your own myth and all of that. It's kind of sad really. We saw a lot of that this summer on all the radio shows we played. These bands couldn't figure out exactly why they sucked.

More soon...

Love,
Nate

Pittsburgh
7/24/97

Words With [Bosstones backup vocalist] Ben

Ben is on four cups of coffee. He is flying and ready to go. D-man is feeling good today "you guys are awesome." They found Cunanan. Ben is watching CNN and wants to go to the show.

Nate: "Ben, give me some info on the tour"

Ben: "Its real...I don't know the cops hassled us at the Grill last night"

Nate: "Why?"

Ben: "Cuz the venue didn't want to be responsible for our friends"

Nate: "The man was coming down on us"

Ben: "Right on"

Nate: "Kevin and Reed took care of then. Dude have you seen Chuck Bizkits"

Ben: "Once. Yeah he is looking like odd ball from Kelly's Heroes and ah, hewears a 666 jersey. He rocks. He is putting the power behind Social D.definitely. He was in Black Flag and Danzig. Robo was in the Misfits. Washe in the Germs later on too? "

Nate: "Okay that's it"

More random nonsense from the Warped tour. 16 shows in a row andcounting......

Love,
Nate

Jacksonville
8/22/98

We are back on tour and back in Jacksonville Fl. This time for the HORDEtour with Neil Young. We are only on the last five days of the tour. Iwatched Neil the other night and was really moved. He is a really great guyand an all around cool vibe. It feels like we have been touring non stopsince March. and it looks like we will be on the road until next summer.

Weplay the Video music awards next week. It will be cool to see Beck and theFoos again. I hear the Stones are going to play too! That kind of stuffalways impresses the parents. After that we start our own nine week tour ofthe U.S. We will be bringing BimSkalaBim, the Drop Kick MurphyÆs and theRoyal Crowns. All very cool and rocking bands from Boston. Towards the endof the tour we will be on Saturday Night Live. Oct.25th I think.

After thatwe will be leaving for Europe for three weeks. IÆve just gotten theschedule; Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland andEngland! After that we are coming home to do our hometown throwdown at theMiddle East Club in Cambridge. After that...New Years Eve Bash in Boston! Then to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii with Pennywise. Yikes. See youguys on the road

love,
Nate

BRANDON BARBER